Nick Powell (composer)

Last updated

Nick Powell is a British musician, composer and sound designer. He has worked extensively in theatre on productions in the West End and on Broadway, and for companies including the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal Court Theatre, and the Donmar Warehouse. [1]

Contents

Theatre career

In 1993, Powell founded the theatre company Suspect Culture alongside director Graham Eatough and playwright David Greig; composing music for fourteen of their productions. [2]

In 2010, Powell co-wrote Get Santa! alongside writer/director Anthony Neilson; the play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre. Powell continued his collaboration with Nielson on Alice in Wonderland at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and Unreachable at the Royal Court Theatre.

In the same year Powell won the Spanish Premios Max Award for Best Composition in Scenic Arts for his work with Andrés Lima and Animalario on the show Urtain. [3]

Powell composed the music for the National Theatre's critically acclaimed [4] production of Othello, directed by Nicholas Hytner. He was also the composer and sound designer for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Dunsinane , directed by Roxana Silbert.

Powell was sound designer of the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies; adapted by Mike Poulten and directed by Jeremy Herrin. The productions were part of the 2013-14 RSC season, [5] followed by a West End run at the Aldwych Theatre. In 2015 The double-bill was re-titled Wolf Hall, Parts 1 and 2 for a Broadway run at the Winter Garden Theatre. [6] Powell worked again with Jeremy Herrin on the UK premiere of The Nether by Jennifer Haley, a co-production between the Royal Court and Headlong. Following its run at the Royal Court in 2014, the production had a West End run at the Duke of York’s Theatre in 2015. [7]

In 2015 Powell created the music for Lanark: A Life in Three Acts at the Edinburgh International Festival collaborating with, amongst others, Alex Lee, Nick McCarthy, Ted Milton, Sarah Willson, Chin Keeler and Lucy Wilkins. [8]

In 2017, he composed the music for 59 Productions adaptation of City of Glass by Paul Auster, adapted for the stage by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Leo Warner at Home Manchester and the Lyric Hammersmith. [9]

That same year Powell was the composer and sound designer on The Ferryman , written by Jez Butterworth and directed by Sam Mendes, it opened at the Royal Court Theatre, followed by a West End run at the Gielgud Theatre . [10] The production transferred to Broadway the following year for which Powell was nominated for Best Sound Design of a Play at the Tony Awards and won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design.

In 2018, Powell composed the music for the National Theatre's production of The Lehman Trilogy , which went on to transfer to Broadway and the West End in 2019. Powell was nominated for Best Sound Designer at the Olivier Awards and for Outstanding Music in a Play at the Drama Desk Awards.

Film and TV work

Powell has written extensively for the screen including the BAFTA winning documentary Death in Gaza . [11] He was also the co-composer for the BBC series Lip Service [11] and he scored the Spanish feature films Dispongo de Barcos and Gente En Sitios for writer/director Juan Cavestany. In addition, he has scored three of the films of visual artist Phil Collins, including co-writing music for Socialism Today with Lætitia Sadier. [12] Powell also worked as Music Consultant on Sam Mendes' film 1917 . [13]

Music career

Powell has toured and recorded with many bands including McAlmont & Butler, Strangelove and Astrid. He is one half of OSKAR, who have performed live scores for three PRADA fashion shows in Milan, exhibited installations at the V&A and the CCA Glasgow as well as producing two albums Air Conditioning and LP:2.

Walls Fall Down was Powell's first solo album release. The album featured numerous guest players including Alex Lee, Sarah Willson, Chin Keeler, Lucy Wilkins, Una Palliser, Rob Spriggs, and Calina De La Mar and was released in March 2021. The album track, "Out of Key", has music video featuring Powell’s daughter, and featured in Juan Cavestany's film 2020 Spanish film, shot during the COVID lockdown, Madrid, Int. 2021 also saw the release of Powell's soundtrack to Spanish feature film Un Efecto Óptico and his solo piano soundtrack to The Lehman Trilogy .

Further work

In 2016, Powell was commissioned by The City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Repertory Theatre to create Cold Calling: The Arctic Project; in which a 20 piece orchestra joined actors performing against a backdrop of Arctic landscapes. [14]

Powell scored ‘Creation’ a stop-motion gallery installation as part of an ongoing project with visual artist Jessica Albarn in 2016. [15]

Powell composed the music for the 59 Production’s Bloom, a multimedia installation in Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square to mark the opening of the 70th Edinburgh International Festival. [16] In October 2017 Powell joined Alex Lee in composing music for 59's Reflections; an animation projected in the Guggenhaim Museum, Bilbao.

Related Research Articles

Jocelyn Pook is a composer who is known for her scores for many films, including Eyes Wide Shut, The Merchant of Venice and The Wife.

<i>Tartuffe</i> 1664 play by Molière

Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite, first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theatre roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paddy Considine</span> English actor (born 1973)

Patrick George Considine is an English actor, director, screenwriter and musician. He is known for playing antiheros in independent films. He has received two British Academy Film Awards, three Evening Standard British Film Awards, British Independent Film Awards and a Silver Lion for Best Short Film at the 2007 Venice Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindsay Duncan</span> Scottish actress

Lindsay Vere Duncan is a Scottish actress. She is the recipient of three BAFTA nominations and one Scottish BAFTA nomination, as well as two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for her work on stage. She has starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Duncan's film credits include Prick Up Your Ears (1987), The Reflecting Skin (1990), City Hall (1996), An Ideal Husband, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Mansfield Park, Under the Tuscan Sun, AfterLife, Starter for 10 (2006), Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010), About Time (2013), Birdman (2014), and Blackbird (2019).

Simon Slater is a British music director, composer, narrator, and actor. He has composed more than 300 original music scores for film, theatre, TV and radio, and is a member of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.

Richard Neville Hartley is an English composer, best known for his work on The Rocky Horror Show. He grew up in Holmfirth.

Talawa Theatre Company is a Black British theatre company founded in 1986.

Bríd Brennan is an Irish actress who is known for her film, TV and theatre work. She originated the role of Agnes in the Brian Friel play Dancing at Lughnasa, for which she won the 1992 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She is also a three-time Olivier Award nominee; for Rutherford and Son (1995), The Little Foxes (2002) and The Ferryman (2018).

Paul Arditti is a British sound designer, working in theatre, mainly in UK and US. He specialises in designing sound for musicals and plays. He has won awards for his work including a Tony Award, two Olivier Awards, three Drama Desk Awards and a BroadwayWorld.com Fans' Choice Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonia Friedman</span> British theatre producer (born 1965)

Sonia Friedman is a British West End and Broadway theatre producer. On 27 January 2017, Friedman was named Producer of the Year for the third year running at The Stage Awards, becoming the first person to win the award three times. In 2018, Friedman was featured in "TIME100", Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018 and was named Broadway Briefing's Show Person of the Year. In 2019, Sonia Friedman Productions was ranked The Stage 's most influential theatre producer in The Stage 100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Herrin</span> English theatre director

Jeremy Herrin is an English theatre director. He is a Founding Director of Second Half Productions with Alan Stacey and Rob O’Rahilly. He was previously Artistic Director of the British touring theatre company; Headlong.

Paul Jesson is an English stage, television and film actor and an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Neil Patel is an American designer for film and television, as well as for opera and the theater. For his work in theater he has twice been honored with the Obie Award for "sustained excellence".

Úna Palliser is an Irish born, London-based violinist, violist, singer and multi-instrumentalist who as well as being classically trained, is recognised for her proficiency in many musical genres, including rock, jazz, Balkan and Irish folk. She has collaborated as guest soloist with London Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and many high profile artists including Shakira, A. R. Rahman, Leona Lewis, Terrafolk and Otis Taylor and as the Irish folk singer on several film and television soundtracks, including Mo Ghile Mear on the Specsavers 'Collie Wobble' advertisement. Herself (film), Obi-Wan Kenobi, My Mother and Other Strangers and Kat and Alfie: Redwater. Palliser became a member of the Balanescu Quartet in 2023

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Malloy</span> American composer and actor

Dave Malloy is an American composer, playwright, lyricist, singer, orchestrator, and actor. He has written several theatrical works, often based on classic works of literature. His most well known work is the Tony Award winning Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, an electropop opera based on War and Peace. His other works include Moby-Dick, an adaptation of Herman Melville's classic novel; Octet, a chamber choir musical about internet addiction; Preludes, a musical fantasia set in the mind of romantic composer Sergei Rachmaninoff; and Ghost Quartet, a song cycle about "love, death, and whiskey".

<i>Beautiful: The Carole King Musical</i> 2014 jukebox musical

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox musical with a book by Douglas McGrath that tells the story of the early life and career of Carole King, using songs that she wrote, often together with Gerry Goffin, and other contemporary songs by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindsay Jones (composer)</span> American composer and sound designer

Lindsay Draper Jones is an American composer and sound designer for theater, television and film. He has also taught and lectured at numerous universities and schools across the country.

Michael McQuilken is an American, New York-based theater and opera director, filmmaker, and musician.

<i>The Ferryman</i> (play) 2017 play by Jez Butterworth

The Ferryman is a 2017 play by Jez Butterworth. Set during The Troubles, it tells the story of the family of a former IRA volunteer, living in their farmhouse in rural County Armagh, Northern Ireland in 1981.

<i>The Mirror and the Light</i> (play) 2021 play

The Mirror and the Light is a play by Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles based on Mantel's 2020 book of the same name. It is the third part to Wolf Hall Parts One & Two which is a double-bill play based on Mantel's novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

References

  1. ↑ "AHA – Nick Powell". Ahatalent.co.uk.
  2. ↑ "Who's Who". Suspectculture.com.
  3. ↑ "Introarte". Premiosmax.com.
  4. ↑ Charles Spencer (24 April 2013). "Othello, National Theatre, review". Telegraph.co.uk.
  5. ↑ "Full casting announced for RSC's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies". WhatsOnStage.com. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "Wolf Hall: Parts 1 & 2 Broadway @ Winter Garden Theatre - Tickets and Discounts | Playbill". Playbill.com. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  7. ↑ "The Nether Play: Duke of York's Theatre London". Thenethertheplay.co.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  8. ↑ "Lanark: A Life in Three Acts". Soundcloud.com.
  9. ↑ Hickling, Alfred (28 March 2017). "Paul Auster on City of Glass on stage: 'This goes beyond the realms of my imagination'". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  10. ↑ Productions, Sonia Friedman. "The Ferryman". The Ferryman. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  11. 1 2 "Nick Powell". IMDb.
  12. ↑ Stuart Jeffries (6 February 2011). "Fastest! Tallest! Marxist! The visual art of Phil Collins". the Guardian.
  13. ↑ "Nick Powell". IMDb.com.
  14. ↑ "Cold Calling: The Arctic Project - Birmingham Contemporary Music Group". Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  15. ↑ Barkham, Patrick (6 September 2016). "Plantlife: Jessica Albarn's meadow art". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  16. ↑ "Edinburgh's festivals celebrate 70 years". BBC News. 4 August 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.